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Toyota to pump in big money into
India
US $ 500 million investment lined
up by Toyota for India
BY OUR AUTO CORRESPONDENT
March 8, 2007: Toyota seems to be
indeed betting big on India. The
automobile major is reported to have
lined up an investment of up to $US
500 million in an attempt to quadruple
the output at its Bangalore plant .
The plan is believed to have arisen
from the need to boost its share of
the country's car market to 10 per
cent by 2010 from less than half that
now. A report said that Toyota’s
current plans follow the thrust of the
other big car makers. The rival
companies are already weighing their
strategies for India which is
considered to represent one of the
industry's biggest opportunities for
expansion in the next decade.
Toyota is the world's second biggest
car maker. The company aims to expand
its existing plant in Bangalore from
an annual output of about 50,000
vehicles last year to about 200,000 by
2010-11. One option is for the new
cars to be based on a new ultra low
cost small vehicle being developed by
Toyota engineers in Japan.
Meanwhile the company is said to have
identified the project as vital for
Toyota as it attempts to use the
group's recent growth in high-cost
regions such as the US and Europe as a
platform for making headway in
emerging economies, including India,
China and South American countries.
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